moda designers

February 2012

02/29/2012

Today I am going to admit to a deceit. For some time now readers I have been untrue....................I am so sorry to reveal that I have been hiding my embarassingly pink and flowery plastic bin. Oh I am so ashamed of being ashamed of it's ugly-plastic-ness, I have tried to fool you by removing it from the scene whenever I snap my photos and that is because this bin is just not me - this bin does not say 'hello, I am the bin of a quilter' and because of that fact I tried to deny its existence to you.

Sigh. (hangs head in shame whilst snapping this photo).

You see, the me in my house is all about the fabric-ness, the patchwork-y and the pretty stuff of life - the cushion-y goodness, the flowery sweetness, the stitchy-stitchiness everywhere.......

Even displays of 'gosh! look at how many pretty pincushions I have to stick my pins in'

So. No. More. It's time I tackled this problem.

And made myself a bin fit for the house of a quilter. Yes I know this is probably amongst the daftest idea's I've ever had (my family haven't laughed at it yet but they are probably still in shock) but I made my bin a 'cosy'.

And now at last I can finally say - I feel strong and confident in my rubbish throwing and photo taking once more.

02/28/2012

Pay close attention to today's blog post because as well as writing stuff about stuff I've been making, I'm also going to attempt a magic (abracadabra) trick.

I've been 'bagging' recently and it's all Jeni's fault with her fantastic free tutorial to make highly useful and addictive drawstring bags. I made a couple a while ago but as these are now employed full time to hold my collection of thread spools and trims, I decided to make just one more to hold my cross stitch project so that I don't start each month trying to remember where I left it last month (took me a while this month I can tell you).

I decided that a foxy cross stitch bag was in order and modified the pattern very slightly to use just one fabric for the front because I'm lazy about these kinds of things frankly. The foxy bag was made and I decided not to stop just now because it had got me all in the 'baggy' mood and I needed to make more.

My daughters convinced me that buying Jeni's pattern to make this bag in multiple sizes was well worth the money (because it's my money being spent not theirs and therefore everything is always worth the money in their little eyes). As soon as the pattern was bought they convinced me I had to make them the laundry bag first because it would be well worth it as it would keep all their dirty clothes nicely tidy and out of sight - you can imagine what music this was to my ears, I snipped and stitched away with dreams of tidy bedrooms wafting brightly through my brain.

And then I stitched up some teeeny weeeny bags to make a cute baggy family of practicality.

I lovingly hung the drawstring of the new laundry bag over the head of the bedstead and waited for it to work its magic. And you know - they they have stuck to their word and I know longer have to avoid looking at the floor or walk in to their room with my eyes closed to avoid disappointment.

But that is not the magic I was waffling on about at the beginning.

This is - you see it's a magic bag, you put your cross stitch into it while you write your blog post and dat dah da daahhhhh when you take it out again it is done for you!! Incredible but true.

02/27/2012

This morning I thoroughly cleaned up the house and am now in the process of making it all messy again.

This is my kind of mess - sewing mess, the kind that I actually don't mind tidying (not as much as other more boring kinds of messiness anyway).

This past weekend was spent in the company of more petal projects.

And now that I'm using some of the petals, I needed to stitch up some new ones (don't want to run out of these do I?). I like how these new ones are unintentinally matching my sewing pouch, this could mean they are going to be made into some bigger sewing pouch-y thingy (undecided but thinking on it).

As expected I spent a considerable number of weekend hours sitting on my new lady chair doing lady like reading stuff. I got a copy of brand new UK magazine 'Modern Quilting' to ooh and aahhhh over. I'm so excited to see this publication hit the shelves and am hopeful to see what it could mean for the growth of quilting in the UK - it's an inspiring read packed with projects and interviews from the likes of Lynne and Kate and I really should mention that there is an interview with little ole me in there too (yes I did spend the weekend giddy-ing over this simple fact). Congratulations to the Modern Quilting team for putting together such an exceptional debut, I look forward to your success!

02/24/2012

The lady chair has arrived!!!!!!!!!!! She arrived last night with her new friend otherwise known as the new big sofa (which will mostly be for my hubby to stretch out on after a hard old day doing whatever it is he does). They will soon be joined by a smaller version of the new big sofa - currently still under construction, which will be mostly be sat on by my daughters telling each other to get out of the way of the telly.

But let's not talk about the other sofa's, lets talk about my new lady seat - a long time longed for piece of upholstered comfort for ladies what lounge (that's me). You can clearly see the infuence of many many hours watched of episodes of miss marple. I have always hankered after the kinds of seats she sits on drinking tea and knitting whilst unravelling one mystery after another and that is precisely what I plan to do too, knit whilst drowning myself in tea and solving stuff I can't make sense of.

I of course had to stitch up a new cushion or two especially for my new chair (I had to pass the waiting time somehow) and tried to remember the colours of the plaid whilst picking my fabrics. I used some far far away 3 by heather ross, pez by american jane, bliss by bonnie and camille and hope valley by denyse schmidt.

The quilt block I used was a modified version of one I put together for a new pattern of mine called 'Festive', I haven't started selling it yet but it is available at Fat Quarter Shop in both pdf and print versions already if you are interested. In this version I have used several fabrics together instead of just two.

This one is a new pillow using my scoot print from sherbet pips I stitched up this morning using the same pattern - this one uses only two fabrics like the blocks in the pattern.

So that's it for this week - I will of course be spending a lot of time lounging this weekend but before that I plan to make some Canelloni tonight using leftover pancakes from Tuesday instead of the pasta - I've tried this before and it's scrumptious, if you've never given it a go, please do.

02/22/2012

I did it. Made the pillow cases using all the fabric - house wife pillow case style with french seams. I've just dressed up my pillows in them and I'm now feeling really dreamy just looking at them. Why did it take me so long???

They look fabulous (but I bet my husband won't notice) and I can't wait to sleep on them - imagine the sweet dreams......

happy.happy.happy.......

Altogether, I managed to notch up eight pillowcases yesterday, one each for the girls and three each for me and my hubby (well we do have bigger and heavier heads).

Fabrics used are dots from lightening bugs and other mysteries by heather ross, blue bouquet from flea market fancy and basket weave from katie jump rope both by denyse schmidt and little red from a walk in the woods by me.

It felt really liberating finally slicing these up yesterday - reminded me of a retired couple I used to rent a room from when I was at college. Me and a friend had a room each on the top floor of their (beautiful) home and were always highly bemused whenever the husband would do a little DIY around the house. He would turn on Classic FM (classical music radio channel) and sing LLLLLLLLLAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaa in high notes as he hammered and drilled around the place. There was something so happy and free about the way he sang those rather loud la's without a care in the world - that's kind of how I would explain what it felt like using some of these fabrics (just in case you're thinking about - do it!).

All of it - to make a set of pillows for my bed - one for me and one for my hubby. Yes I will share, even though I know he will inevitably drip coffee over it and I will cringe and grit my teeth like mad.

To those of a non sewing persuasion these words might sound quite obtuse coming from the writer of a blog essentially all about sewing but I know that there are many of you out there who will know exactly what I mean when I say this is lightening bolt stuff, to actually use a fabric I am so in love with I hide it in a cupboard instead of sewing it into something I can see every day. I know this fabric is about to be re-released which makes this kind of decision easier but I'm still kind of panicking as I cut in case the new stuff is different in some way or maybe that it sells out before I get my unorganized finger out and buy some.

So fabric is cut and I'm heading back over to the sewing machine to stitch it up. Let's hope I don't make any mistakes.

02/20/2012

I am pretty squealingly excited today because this past weekend, me and my husband managed to do something I was getting increasingly worried we would never do - we managed to buy a new sofa - as in we managed to finally come to decision on what sofa suite we would actually buy. You cannot imagine how much of a sticky point of challenging disagreement this has been.

For the past couple of years our need for a new set of cushion-y seats has become a situation of dire importance because you see those seat and arm rest covers in the photo above? They are not merely there for their country looking charm, they in fact hide a volcano's worth of rip-pity tears and sponge-y sofa filling leakage. We have now had this suite for more than ten years and I really think we have been making do by covering all the gap-y tears for at least the last four (though considering this entire suite was a £500 Argo's purchase - I think we more than got our money's worth).

Over the past few years I have dreamed about the kind of sofa I would replace this one with - the trouble was - so did my hubby and our perfect sofa dreams did not marry well. Last year when we attempted to shop for something new, he managed to pick the one sofa in the entire shop I hated - horrendously ornate and with what looked like a stack of ring doughnuts for feet.....................I kid you not.

For now I will be sat here on MY sofa, cross stitching and anxiously waiting the arrival of MY new seat - which is a Miss Marple style lady chair like this one.

The purpose of this hop is to celebrate the launch of the 2012 designer mystery block of the month. We all love a mystery and when you combine mystery with fabric and make it last all year that can only be classed as a winning combination.

On to the FUN stuff, this year the fabric chosen for the BOM is Vintage Modern by Bonnie and Camille which leads my nicely on to the giveaway part of this post.

Up for grabs is one layer cake of my new line - a walk in the woods, kindly donated by Fat Quartershop (thank you!)

Each of the designer's in this hop were asked to pick something Vintage Modern from their closet's, all you have to do is guess what my vintage modern item is. The teeny pic above is your only clue to my item. The winner will be selected from all those who guess correctly.

Feel free to embellish your answer with as much detail as you can - perhaps you could tell me where I bought it, at what time and what I was thinking as I handed over the cash (this part is not necessary but you are more than welcome to give me a giggle with your thoughts).

02/16/2012

My sewing space today - Yes, I know that is a messy pic but this is what my living room really looks like when I sew (actually this is quite tidy).

Today is only the second day I've had a chance to get my sewing machine out since the start of this year and after my initial panic stage where I want to sew everything I have dreamed about sewing over the last few weeks at once, I have finally mapped out a manageable list in my head. I find it strangely humorous to think how despite my love of sewing/quilting/patchwork having lead me to some fantastic opportunities - I am finding it increasingly difficult to find the time to actually, you know - 'sew'. It's a conundrum of catch 22 proportions.

Even though I have a huge inbox of emails to answer, I am taking some time out for the rest of this week to - just revel in the joy of sewing because I want (erm need) to.